2023/09/11 by Jagger, Sarah, Puls, Matthew, Yan, Alexander
#Tetragnatha elongata #cobble bar #functional islands #island biogeography #tussocks
paper · doi:10.21973/n3nd57
Island biogeography has been applied to functional islands, such as fragmented forests or species of plants. We hypothesized that tussocks, or sedges with mounded sediments at their base, will serve as islands for the elongate silt spider, Tetragnatha elongata, which occupy them. Our study took place at the South Fork of the Eel River at Angelo Coast Range Reserve. We observed the distributions of T. elongata and other spiders on tussocks throughout riparian cobble bars, and we flooded tussocks which were either isolated or not isolated to determine if recolonization rates differed on tussocks between the two species. We found that the distribution of both T. elongata and other spiders on the tussocks does not follow the principles of island biogeography. Given our results, we conclude that cobble bar tussocks do not act as islands for T. elongata. We further suggest that functional islands are not ubiquitously islands for all organisms which use the habitat, and such incidences should be addressed in conservation management concerns.